Villain in question is a regular Nit. Playing like 13.6/11.5. The UTG raiser is playing around 19/14. I can raise AK here obviously, but it's less profitable vs his tight range since he'll just 4-bet or fold, and should I get 4bet by him, I actually have to fold in this spot.

An alternative option here was to just call and play the hand postflop, and possibly induce a squeeze from someone behind me. Especially the SB was pretty squeeze happy but overall people were pretty aggressive behind me, so I elected to take that option.

Only I got raised by the only real Nit at the table, who plays so bloody straightforward that he always has a hand in this spot. But I second guessed myself, assumed his range could be wider here because of me coldcalling and got it in.

Not a bad result at all, since we were just flipping with some dead money in the pot, but his range just crushed me here.

Villain is playing around 25/25, me around 24/21 with an attempt to steal of around 41%. This seems a spot in which I can both 4bet or take a flop, and I almost 4-bet here because villain could just be squeezing here. But even while villain is pretty aggressive, this is the first time he actually 3-bet me from the blinds. In position I mix it up here.

Flop: ($37.5, 2 players)BB checks, Hero checks

Villain let's me know here that he has a hand or absolutely nothing, since if he isn't cbetting a K-rag board as a bluff, what boards will he cbet? It's also pretty obvious I got a good hand, or I would not have called him preflop. If I bet here I probably get 1 street of value out of a hand like QQ/JJ, 0 out of bluffs. Checking behind gives him a chance to bluff the turn and under represents my hand.

Turn: ($37.5, 2 players)BB checks, Hero bets $20, BB calls $20

His second check here makes me think a hand like QQ/JJ is the most likely, just hoping to get to a cheap showdown. I think he would lead TT or worse here, and a lot of air, so I make a bet here which I expect to get called by QQ/JJ.

River: ($77.5, 2 players)BB checks, Hero bets $44, BB calls $44

Him calling the turn bet pretty much narrowed his range down to QQ/JJ so I made another bet not too large to get some value here.

Even while this hand plays itself, since I'm definitely not folding TPTK with backdoor flush draw vs an unknown in a 3bet pot for 100BB's, one thing is interesting here. Even while it's an unknown, the bet size he uses to raise me with is for many people quite a tell. Round numbers are often draws/bluffs, while the more odd numbers are more like value bets. Another tell was that he raised this nearly instantly. If I were sitting in this spot with AQ, I would snapcall here too.

UTG is a pretty solid TAG, UTG+1 is a total nutcase, so I call here to see if I can spot a 4 on the flop.

Flop: ($11, 3 players)Hero checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks

No 4, but this flop misses most A high holdings which UTG can have, and his opening range also includes many lower pocketpairs. So standard play here is to checkraise since my 4's are never good if called. Villain takes the sensible route, probably because of the nutcase behind him, and does not cbet here.

Turn: ($11, 3 players)Hero bets $8, 1 fold, UTG+1 calls $8

Checkraise failed, and my hand has absolutely 0 showdown value here, so I choose to take a stab here. Villain surprisingly calls, but with my image (running 24/21 here) it's possible he sees through it and realizes a pocket pair higher than the 6 could be good here, or even ace high. Plan is to bet any river after he calls.

River: ($27, 2 players)Hero checks, UTG+1 checks

A pretty annoying spot here. If I bet here ace high will fold and so will any pocketpair, and I will only get called by better hands. If I check here, all those hands will check behind. I do not think villain will ever be betting the river with less than a jack, which is extremely unlikely for him to have here. Nothing I can do here except checking. And villain played this hand perfectly.

Receive a 100% signup BONUS up to $600 and 18% RAKEBACK by signing up with bonus code 53OFFSUIT
Receive a $100 reload bonus each month and 22% RAKEBACK by signing up through this banner, E-mail me to let me know how you prefer to receive the rakeback.